Focus Group 2 Network Reliability PJ Aduskevicz, AT&T Ross Callon, Juniper Wayne Hall, Comcast

Focus Group Mission Statement Define reliability measurements (units) for commercial communications networks (i.e., wireline and wireless transport networks, including satellite and cable) and for the Internet by March 22, Define reasonable, measurable customer-affecting outage reporting thresholds for commercial communications networks (i.e., wireline and wireless transport networks, including satellite and cable) and for the Internet by March 22, Conduct voluntary outage reporting trial, collect data, analyze results, and report on the validity, usefulness, and timeliness of the process and information obtained, and make recommendations for improvement. Based on trial results (including information on services affected by an outage), evaluate and report on the reliability of public communications network services in the United States. Should the Commission initiate an inquiry or rulemaking with respect to any of the above-mentioned issues, the Focus Group will provide input to the NRIC, which may make formal recommendations as a part of such proceeding(s). Evaluate, and report on, the reliability of public telecommunications network services in the United States.

Voluntary Trial Outage Reporting Guidelines Compiled Guidelines for use by Service Providers, which includes: 1.Units and Thresholds – To determine which outages are to be reported; 2.Report Contents – To determine what information will be reported in confidential outage reports to a trusted third party under NDA; 3.Report Sanitizing – To determine what information is to be scrubbed from the confidential report before the report is made available to NRIC participants; 4.Confidential Report Repository – To determine which organization will be responsible for handling and sanitizing the confidential reports; 5.Reporting Process – To determine the process for reporting during the voluntary trial period. The data collected during the voluntary outage reporting trial is intended for use in improving network reliability, such as by providing information useful in order to verify and improve the NRIC best practices, or to create study groups to understand and improve issues identified as a result of the data. Specifically, it is not appropriate for reported data to be used for Marketing nor for Public Relations purposes.

Voluntary Trial Status Number of Companies Providing Technical Contacts Number of Positive Reports Received Number of Outage Reports Received Process Improvements Outage Reporting Guidelines Re-notification to all participating enterprises (February 21, 2003) Technical Contacts Positive Reporting NCS/NCC Process Resources for NCC to assist process implementation Process Flow Enhancement and Clarification of Scrubbed Data Clarification of Service Provider review of scrubbed data before it is is passed from the NCC to the Focus Group, and clarification and understanding of the Data Elements to be passed Confirms enterprise sensitive data is removed Sufficiently protects “security” information

Service Provider NCS / NCCFocus Group 2NRIC VI & Industry If yes If no NCS/NCC Logs Report Determine if Outage meets Trial Criteria Outage Occurs Create Initial Report Within 3 days Send to NCS / NCC Conduct Root Cause Analysis Identify Best Practice Send Final Report Within 30 Days Approve Scrubbed Report Local Analysis Collect, Validate and Send Data 1 2 initial final Scrub Data per Criteria established By FG2 Scrubbed Data Received by FG2 Analyze Scrubbed Data, Review BP coverage Provide Status at NRIC VI Council meetings Make Recommendations Monitor Progress Concur or Provide Input on Recommendations Develop Final Report to Include Recommendations File Final Report initial final 3 NRIC VI Voluntary Outage Reporting Trial Process

Contents of Confidential Outage Reports Reporting carrier / service provider Contact person Telephone number of contact person Start date Start time of impact Geographic area affected Estimated number of customers affected Types of services affected (if applicable) Duration of outage (hours and minutes) Apparent or known cause Name of equipment involved [OPTIONAL] Type of equipment involved [OPTIONAL] Specific part of network involved Methods used to restore service [OPTIONAL] Steps taken to prevent recurrence Root cause and trouble found [OPTIONAL] Applicable best practice [OPTIONAL]

Scrubbing of Confidential Reports Scrubbing of Outage Reports Reporting carrier / service provider is deleted. This is replaced by a unique numerical identifier for the outage. Contact person (name, telephone number, address if present) is deleted. Date of incident is left unchanged. Time of incident is left unchanged. Geographic Area affected is made less specific. Only the city or general geographic area is maintained in the scrubbed report. The reporting service provider can work with the NCC/NCS to determine how general the geographic area should be after the scrubbing operation. Name and type of equipment involved is deleted. Other fields are left unchanged in the scrubbed report. Geographic Area affected is made less specific. Only the city or general geographic area is maintained in the scrubbed report. The reporting service provider can work with the NCC/NCS to determine how general the geographic area should be after the scrubbing operation. Other fields are left unchanged in the scrubbed report. Scrubbing of Positive Reports For positive reports, the only information which is maintained after the scrubbing function is the industry segment, and the month.

Network Reliability Steering Committee NRSC Fourth Quarter 2002 Report

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report FCC Reportable Service Outages (by number of events) Total outages (23) were at the lowest level of any quarter, and of any year (117), since the start of the Baseline Period.

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report FCC Reportable Service Outages (by outage index) The aggregated outage index was at the lowest level (1263) of any year since the start of the Baseline Period.

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report Analysis of the outages for 4Q02 and Year 2002 indicates: The frequencies of Facility, CO Power, and Procedural Error, as well as Total outages were lower than their Baseline levels and these differences were statistically significant. Total outages (23) were at the lowest level of any quarter, and of any year (117), since the start of the Baseline Period. Facility outages (7) were at the lowest level of any quarter, and of any year (46), since the start of the Baseline Period. Tandem Switch outages (12) were at the lowest level of any year since the start of the Baseline Period. The aggregated outage index was at the lowest level (1263) of any year since the start of the Baseline Period. Based upon analysis of all outages reported from 1Q93 through 4Q02, the NRSC notes that: There is a statistically significant decreasing trend in both the number and outage index of Facility and Local Switch outages since the start of the Baseline Period. There is an increasing trend in both the frequency and outage index of CO Power outages since the start of the Baseline Period; the trend in frequency is statistically significant. There is an increasing trend in both the frequency and outage index of Procedural Errors as the root cause of outages since the start of the Baseline Period. Nevertheless, Procedural Error outage frequency exhibits a statistically significant decreasing trend since 2Q96. CCS outages exhibit statistically significant increasing trends in frequency and outage index since 1993.

Reliability Reporting – NRSC Reports Breakthrough Process Improvement The NRSC has begun using an new statistical tool that enables trend analysis for Multiple Time Windows –One window for each quarter in past history –All windows contain most recent quarter –Allows flexibility with focus retained on recent history

Facility Outage Frequency Data (1Q93 – 4Q02) FST Started One Call Bill Passed FST Ended

Facility Outage Index Data (1Q93 – 4Q02) FST Started One Call Bill Passed FST Ended

Reliability Reporting – NRSC Reports The NRSC urges all service providers and equipment vendors to review all best practices for application in their operations. These Best Practices may be found at:

Focus Group 2 Back Up

Focus Group Membership PJ Aduskevicz, AT&T Bonnie Amann, Sprint Ken Buckley, Federal Reserve Board Robert Burkhardt, Nextel Ross Callon, Juniper Rick Canaday, AT&T Kevin Cavanagh, AT&T Wireless Wayne Chiles, Verizon Joe Craig, Qwest Bernie Farrell, NCS David Fears, Cox Communications Lee Fitzsimmons, Nextel Brian Goemmer, Western Wireless Jeff Goldthorp, FCC Wayne Hall, Comcast Bruce Harrod, C&W John Healy, FCC Dean Henderson, Nortel Networks Bob Holley, Cisco Robin Howard, Verizon Bruce Johnson, Verisign Rick Kemper, CTIA Bill Klein, ATIS Bernie Ku, WorldCom Jim Lankford, SBC Greg Larson, Exodus/CWUSA Mike Lecocke, SBC Chris Liljenstolpe, CW Chris MacFarland, Allegiance Spilios Makris, Telcordia Archie McCain, BellSouth Dave McDysan, WorldCom Brian Micene, AT&T Wireless Denny Miller, Nortel Erick Mogelgaard, Cox Chris Oberg, Verizon Wireless Gary Pellegrino, CommFlow Resources Bonnie Petti, Verizon Wireless Christopher Quesada, PAIX.net Karl Rauscher, Lucent Arthur Reilly, Cisco Systems Ira Richer, The Telesis Group Jim Runyon, Lucent Andy Scott, NCTA Don Smith, NCS Ron Stear, C&W Sandy Stephens, Focal Jeff Swinton, Conexion Corp. Whitey Thayer, FCC Robert Vogel, PanAmSat Corp. Doug Williams, Comcast Cable

Inter-Domain Routers PSTN DSL Wireless Cable Dial-Up DNS RADIUS DHCP Core Backbone Distribution Service Aggregation XYZ Corp Internet/IP Service Provider

Outage Reporting Units and Thresholds Type of Internet AccessCustomer DefinitionComments CableHouseholdWhether they are actively using it or not at the time of the outage Dial-Up Dial-Up Port Whether or not port is in use at time of outage DSL Household Whether they are actively using it or not at the time of the outage Satellite Household Whether they are actively using it or not at the time of the outage WirelessCustomers or Blocked Calls Historical trends may be used

NRSC Back Up

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report Incidents by Failure Category (Facility) There is a decreasing trend in the number of Facility outages.

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report Incidents by Failure Category (Local Switch) There is a decreasing trend in the number of Local Switch outages.

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report Incidents by Failure Category (CO Power) There is an increasing trend in the number of CO Power outages.

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report Incidents by Failure Category (Common Channel Signaling) There is an increasing trend in the number of CCS outages.

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report Procedural Error Attributed Outages (by number of events) There is an increasing trend in the frequency of Procedural Errors as the root cause of outages.

Reliability Reporting – NRSC 4Q02 Report Procedural Error Attributed Outages (by outage index) There is an increasing trend in the aggregated outage index of Procedural Errors as the root cause of outages.